I've always been taught to put myself last when referring to myself in the same sentence as others but the usage of "me and..." seems to be everywhere these days. The misuse of the word "me" instead of "I" aside, is there some new rule I haven't heard of? Shouldn't we put ourselves last regardless of the "me"/"I" usage?

Examples of "correct" usage:

My friends and I went for some ice
cream. Did you see my friends and me
at the ice cream stand?

Examples of "incorrect" usage:

Me and my friends went for some ice
cream. Did you see me and my friends
at the ice cream stand?

Note: I was also taught that the only person who could put themselves first was the queen.

5 Answers
5

The difference between "I and my friends" and "my friends and I" is purely a matter of courtesy - they are both grammatically correct. I would tend to stick to the latter though, as it's a) more common-place, b) considered more polite, c) seems to flow better.

Indeed, your example of 'incorrect' usage is incorrect solely in that the first sentence uses the accusative (objective) pronoun me, when you actually need the nominative (subjective) pronoun 'I'. The second sentence of that example is correct, since the pronoun needs to be in the accusative, as the object. You seem to understand this though; this is just to clarify.

agreed, I was always taught it is simply courtesy - you hold a door and go through it last, same when you refer to people in a sentence you put yourself last to defer to their superiority. As for the Queen, even she will say "My husband and I..." as heard on so many Christmas broadcasts.
–
AdamVSep 4 '10 at 10:09

There is a tendency in informal speech and writing to use object pronouns when conjoined with other nouns or pronouns, even if serving as the subject of a verb. You never hear this usage if the subject is not conjoined; that is, no native speaker would say “me went for some ice cream” but “me and my friends went for some ice cream” is actually quite a common usage produced by native speakers of all kinds.

This happens because what linguists would call the “unmarked” or standard, basic form for pronouns turns out to be the objective form—me, him, her, them, and the like. This is the form of the pronoun used when there is no verb:

– Who wants a cookie?
– Me.

“Me and Mrs. Jones”

“Me and Bobby McGee”

“Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard”

What happens is as pronouns in conjoined subjects get further and further from the verb, the impulse to change the default form into the subject form is weaker, and in informal contexts, is simply not followed. Now, in formal standard written English, subjects of verbs must be in subjective form, conjoined or not, leading to generations of schoolmarms correcting their students:

Mrs. Jones and I

Bobby McGee and I

Julio and I Down by the Schoolyard

and the famous musical about an excruciatingly correct teacher of English:

The King and I

The most fascinating thing of course is that generations of schoolmarms correcting students over the apparently perfectly natural use of objective pronouns in conjoined subjects has made everyone with even a little bit of formal education intensely anxious about using objective pronouns, causing them to hypercorrect and use subject pronouns even where object pronouns are correct: “just between you and I” is a commonly cited example.

Edit:
As for the original poster’s actual question, there is nothing in the grammar of English per se about ordering of pronouns in conjoined noun phrases. It is a kind of grammatical etiquette to put yourself last, but there is no rule of grammar governing the order.

Another place we can see evidence that the objective form is the unmarked form in English is in the way we label photos. If I have a picture of myself, I label it "me"; I don't label it "I". Contrast this with German, where the subject form is the unmarked form; if I label a photo of myself, I label it "ich" ("I") and not "mich" ("me"). And with your example, if someone asks "who wants a cookie?" in German, the answer would again be "ich".
–
KosmonautAug 17 '10 at 19:15

@Kosmonaut Your last point about it being considered polite to put yourself last in the list is correct. +1. Talking of "politeness", I was always taught that the correct answer to "who wants a cookie" would be "me please", or "I would please". Forgetting please would mean that I could also forget the cookie ;-)
–
Paul WaglandFeb 15 '12 at 18:15

1

What reported from Kosmonaut about German is true also for Italian; in both the cases, in Italian you use io (I).
–
kiamlalunoJun 13 '12 at 9:48

2

I would think that "You should blame me and John" is actually more polite than "You should blame John and me".
–
Peter Shor Jan 5 '13 at 13:54

It all depends on where the phrase fits in the sentence. Sometimes you hear I used incorrectly as in "That's a picture of my partner and I." It should be: "That's a picture of my partner and me" because partner and me = object.

If you try taking out "my partner and" you'll soon see whether it should be I or me.

You should use you and I when this acts as a subject and me and you when this acts as an object. The first half of your second example isn't wrong because of the word order (ie Me and my friends vs My friends and me) it is wrong because me can't be the subject of the sentence. It is grammatically wrong.

The second half of your examples are interchangeable. Both are equally common.